Information & Ethics Committee on May 25th, 2015

Evidence of meeting #37 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was year.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Main Estimates 2015-16: Vote 1 under OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LOBBYING, vote 1 under OFFICE OF THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND ETHICS COMMISSIONER, votes 1 and 5 under OFFICE OF THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONERS OF CANADA and vote 1 under SENATE ETHICS OFFICER

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Mary Dawson Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Suzanne Legault Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

Denise Benoit Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Lyne Robinson-Dalpé Director, Advisory and Compliance, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Karen Shepherd Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying

Daniel Therrien Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

4:05 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

Yes, it's not me they're providing the information to. They're advisers of the people who the members or the public office holders phone or consult with, at least at the first instance, to ask questions. As well, they also deal with the annual reports or the initial reports. They're the initial face with the public office holders or the members.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Yes, thank you.

I assume you have a process for receiving requests. Can you outline that as well.

4:05 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

This is requests for advice...?

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

For information, for people who are seeking formal help through the Information Commissioner's office.

4:05 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

It can come in through many ways. It can come in by email. It can come in by letter or it could come in by phone call. Each adviser is designated a certain number of public office holders and/or members. Each of those people under the act or the code have a specific adviser, so they develop a familiarity with each other.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

For clarity, when an issue comes forward there's an adviser who will take hold of each of those areas and work with people to try to clarify.

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

No, it's not the issue; it's the individual. They're responsible for a particular individual.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Okay.

Is your role then—and I see it here as one of the areas you mentioned—that you perhaps will keep track of the media and those areas, and look at picking up ideas on your own to see if they need to be requested in? Is that what I interpreted or....?

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

We certainly watch the media when it has anything to do with our mandate and if we see something.... For instance, there have been a number of investigations I've launched on the basis of information that I've discovered in the media, so yes. But more of them come in from private citizens than come in from the media. There's always been this discussion about whether private citizens should be allowed to request an investigation. Effectively, the way my office operates, it doesn't really matter whether they have that right or not, because if anything comes in we look into it unless it's nutty, but most of them are not nutty. Some of them are, but....

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Thank you.

I'm not going to ask what the definition of “nutty” is or what kind of differences there may be, but I just wondered if you saw your role then more as a watchdog in some of those areas or as dealing with the formal complaints that might be coming forward from the individuals. I assume any individual in Canada has that right to be able to bring something forward.

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

I see my role as this. If I become aware, in any way, of the act or the code appearing not to be followed, then I should follow up and see what's going on.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Thanks. I want to look at your numbers. You're saying your office has over 4,000 communications as well.

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

With the media and individuals, yes.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Can you expand on that for me a bit?

4:10 p.m.

Director, Advisory and Compliance, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Lyne Robinson-Dalpé

The 4,000 are for communications with public office holders and members of the House of Commons. Again, in there, I'm talking about communications generally. Some of these communications have a number of communications, so there can be a lot of back and forth, but I didn't go into all the details with regard to that. The statistic is communication with an individual. It can be on an annual review, and that takes a longer time and a number of communications for that specific component. I didn't go into those details.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Back to the information management technology and the launch of the first component of the two initiatives—and of course, the launch was your first—can you expand on the registry's launch as being the first component of the two-part phase you're developing?

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

The objective there was to make it easier for somebody who wanted to find out information about an individual who was under both the act and the code. Up until the beginning of this fiscal year, you had to look under a code registry and under an act registry. We put them together so you can get in and deal with them all in one shot.

The second phase is going to be opening up the possibility of people working directly with our machines, our computers, with putting reports in and that sort of thing.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

That's through the portal system.

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

Yes, the portal.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

How is that? Is it set up? Is it running?

4:10 p.m.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Mary Dawson

It's on its way. We're working on that. That will be launched later this year.

4:10 p.m.

Director, Advisory and Compliance, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Lyne Robinson-Dalpé

September.

4:10 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault

Mr. Maguire, you have 20 seconds left if you want to ask a quick question.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

That's fine.

4:10 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault

Now we'll move on to Madame Borg for five minutes.